A Guide to the King’s Speech: Crown Jewels, Black Rod and a Mace

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A Guide to the King’s Speech: Crown Jewels, ****** Rod and a Mace

A “********,” a search for explosives, heaps of royal jewels and a five-foot silver gilt mace. Welcome to the reopening of Britain’s Parliament, replete with ancient traditions and elaborate rituals, and infused with anticipation over the country’s newly elected Labour government.

The restart of parliamentary business on Wednesday will begin with a speech by King Charles III, a significant ceremonial duty that sets out the government’s agenda. While it’s not the first time King Charles has presided over the ceremony — he delivered his first King’s Speech last November, and he delivered the Queen’s Speech on behalf of his mother, Elizabeth II, in 2022 — it is the first time his speech will herald a new party’s time in power.

Despite the name, the speech is not written by the king, but by government officials. The monarch just reads it out.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, which won a landslide victory in a general election earlier this month, is expected to announce

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proposed pieces of legislation on issues including housing, energy, transport and the makeup of the House of Lords. During the election campaign, Labour pledged to

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— 92 members of the House of Lords who inherit their seats in Parliament from their fathers — as part of a broader modernization of the second chamber.

The opening will be rife with ceremony and symbolism, all of it steeped in history — with some elements dating back to the Middle Ages. Here is a guide.

A Gaslit Hunt for Explosives

Some elements of Parliament’s reopening happen behind the scenes, including a ceremonial search of the cellars of government buildings for explosives.

Before the king’s arrival, his guards, decked out in royal red, trek down to the cellars, gas lamps in hand. Based on historical precedent, the tradition is a nod to the ******* 1605 Gunpowder Plot by Guy Fawkes and his ********* collaborators to ***** up Parliament and, with it, King James I, a ***********.

Then there is the “******** taking.”

A member of Parliament is ceremonially held ******** in Buckingham Palace while the king visits Westminster, just in case the lawmakers decide not to return him.

This is rooted in the 1600s, when the relationship between Parliament and the monarchy was particularly fraught under Charles I. (He was eventually beheaded at the end of a civil war.)

A Royal Entrance

The king will travel from Buckingham Palace through the streets of London to the government buildings at Westminster in a horse-drawn carriage escorted by the Household Cavalry, who serve as his mounted bodyguards.

The Imperial State Crown, the Cap of Maintenance and the Great Sword of State arrive in their own carriage.

The king pulls up to a special passageway — a looming archway known as the Sovereign’s Entrance — that’s reserved just for him.

The King’s Royal Threads

Then, it’s time for a costume change. The monarch will head into the elaborate Robing Room and emerge wearing the Robe of State, an 18-foot red velvet cape. He will also wear the Imperial State Crown, encrusted with 2,868 diamonds and hundreds of other jewels, including 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and 269 pearls.

Think bling.

It must be heavy. That may be part of the reason Charles’ mother, Elizabeth, took to wearing a smaller Diamond Diadem in some of her last appearances. She was an expert in opening Parliament, having conducted the ceremony dozens of times throughout her reign.

Slamming the Door in ****** Rod’s Face

Sarah Clarke, the House of Lords official known as the Usher of the ****** Rod, named for the ****** stick that she wields, will then be sent from the Lords’ Chamber to summon the lawmakers in the House of Commons. She is the first woman to hold the position, taking it up in 2018.

On approach, the speaker of the House of Commons then — ceremoniously, of course — slams the door in her face.

****** Rod must then knock on the door three times. Some say this tradition, which dates from the English Civil War of the 1600s, symbolizes the House of Commons’s independence from the monarchy, although Erskine May, a 19th-century guide to Britain’s parliamentary proceedings,

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“is to allow the Commons to establish ****** Rod’s identity.” After three strikes on the door, ****** Rod is let in. She then leads a procession of lawmakers back to the House of Lords to listen to the king’s speech.

Accompanying her will be the sergeant-at-arms, whose role dates from the 1400s, carrying the mace: a five-foot, silver-gilt ornamental staff that represents the royal authority of the crown and dates from

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.

The King’s Speech

Then it’s time for the main event.

From a throne in the House of Lords, the king will set out the agenda and legislative policies of Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party.

The Sovereign’s Throne — elaborately carved wood, gilded, set with crystals and upholstered in royal red velvet — was constructed and designed in 1847. It is based on a throne from 1308 that sits nearby in Westminster Abbey.

While the speech is rooted in tradition, its aftermath, when the new government gets up and running, could be anything but routine, after the remarkable election victory by Labour ended 14 years of ************* government.

But the party is now leading the country at a moment of volatility both inside Britain and on the global stage, and faces considerable challenges after a ******* of intense instability.

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#Guide #Kings #Speech #Crown #Jewels #****** #Rod #Mace

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